Cool Computing 2012

The 2012 Cool Computing competition took place on Wednesday 22nd February as part of the UCAS Open Day. Five undergraduates submitted a total of seven entries which were judged by 23 prospective students.

The winner was first-year student Chris Fey who presented his Face Follower robot . It is made out of Lego and has a mobile phone attached. It uses the camera in the phone to search for a face; when it has found one it follows it around the room until asked to stop by clapping hands.

The audience awarded Face Follower 15 out of 20 for coolness while Dave Cohen gave 7.5 out of 10 for academic relevance. Bob Vickers gave it 9 out of 10 for maintainability.

Chris is therefore this year's winner and wins the trophy plus a cheque for £120.

In second place was Angus Goldsmith, also a first-year student. His ingenious Ripple Carry Adder was implemented using the game Minecraft. The demonstration showed how one could emulate computer hardware using Minecraft; his demo only covers addition but using these techniques it is possible to create a computer in Minecraft capable of running a Minecraft emulation. Note very useful, but just the kind of thing that computer scientists like.

Ripple Carry Adder was awarded 10 out of 20 for coolness, 9 out of 10 for academic relevance and 10 out of 10 for maintainability.

In third place was another first-year, Blake Loring. His demo Shaded provides a means of designing 3D applications for Android devices. Scenes are designed using the popular Blender program on a PC, and Blake's software enables them to be transferred to an app on an Android phone.

Shaded was awarded 11 out of 20 for coolness, 6 out of 10 for academic relevance and 6 out of 10 for maintainability.

Angus and Blake win runners-up prizes of £60 each.

Worthy entries were also submitted by Jon Witting (2 entries) and Ataul Munim, plus Blake Loring also submitted an extra entry. Many thanks and congratulations to all for producing such a varied an ingenious selection of demos.